Anticancer and Antiinflammatory Activity of Uncaria Tomentosa (Cat’s Claw)
17 March 2008
Uncaria tomentosa (Willdenow ex Roemer & Schultes) De Candolle is a large
woody vine indigenous to a number of central and South American countries. This
species, also known as una de gato or cat’s claw, is widely used in folk healing as an
immunomodulatory, anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory remedy. The list of treated
diseases include for instance gastric ulcers, diarrhea, gonorrhea, arthritis and
rheumatism, acne, diseases of the urinary tract and cancers. The most often way of
cat’s claw medical administration is drinking its decoctions prepared through
boiling in water or by macerating in alcohol the inner bark or the root bark.
Sometimes it is used in combination with other ingredients such as chuchuhuasi
bark, capsaicin, burdock root, sheep sorrel or slippery elm bark.
In vitro and in vivo studies indicate oxindole alkaloids (speciophylline, mitraphylline,
uncarine F, pteropodine, isomitraphylline, uncarine E) as main compounds
responsible for such medicinal properties, however, many other constituents must
be also taken into consideration due to broad pharmacological activity of this plant.
Numerous investigations have been carried out to isolate and determine secondary
metabolites of cat’s claw. There are over fifty different compounds including,
besides above-mentioned alkaloids and their N-oxides, ursane type pentacyclic
triterpenes with a variety of ursolic acid derivatives, quinovic acid glycosides, sterols
and procyanidins. Although it seems that activity of Uncaria tomentosa is
likely to result from a combination of these and other compounds which work
synergistically, some of them are reported to possess very strong pharmacological
properties. Quinovic acid glycosides (q.a. 3